Frightened by the devil

humansofnewyork:

“I wanted to be a famous author.  Literature has been my passion since childhood.  But whenever you have a passion, it’s so easy to convince yourself that you’re not good at it.  Because you read all these fantastic authors.  And then you try to write yourself, and you learn how difficult it can be to write a single perfect sentence.  It’s so much work to be happy with what you’ve written.  And sometimes you choose life.  We’re in Paris, it’s sunny, I have wonderful friends, maybe I should just be enjoying these things instead of thinking about how to package and share them.  So I got a job in communications.  And I mainly just wrote for my own enjoyment: poems, notes, journals.  But I never shared a thing.  Not a single page.  With anyone.  But last year I wrote a story.  A complete story.  A real story.  With two characters, a beginning, and an end.  I thought: ‘Maybe it’s not too bad.  We must test.  Maybe this is the moment.’  So a few months ago I submitted it to a contest in my town.  It’s just a small town.  And just a very little contest.  But this morning I got the email.  I won the prize.  And I’m just so happy.  This weekend I’m going to the beach with my family.  I can’t wait to tell my mother.  I can’t believe I get to say these words, the greatest words: ‘I will be published.’”
(Paris, France)

The dream. So simple. So much.

(via humansofnewyork)

taylorswift:

I’m writing this post about the upcoming midterm elections on November 6th, in which I’ll be voting in the state of Tennessee. In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now.  I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country. I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent.

I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love.  Running for Senate in the state of Tennessee is a woman named Marsha Blackburn. As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me. She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry. These are not MY Tennessee values. I will be voting for Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives.  Please, please educate yourself on the candidates running in your state and vote based on who most closely represents your values. For a lot of us, we may never find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100% on every issue, but we have to vote anyway.

So many intelligent, thoughtful, self-possessed people have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count. But first you need to register, which is quick and easy to do. October 9th is the LAST DAY to register to vote in the state of TN. Go to vote.org and you can find all the info. Happy Voting! 🗳😃🌈

vangoghld:

Frida Kahlo

The Two Fridas

1939

newyorker:

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was and remains a scholar, an advocate, and a judge of formidable sophistication, complexity, and, not least, contradiction and limitation. It is no kindness to flatten her into a paper doll and sell her as partisan merch.

Read the full story, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Unlikely Path to the Supreme Court,” here.